Sir, - As a committed non-smoker, it could be expected that I should welcome the "crackdown" on smoking recently launched by the Minister for Health, Michael Martin.
However, so long as the measures announced fail to address the plight of those for whom the horse has already bolted, namely, the significant number of nicotine addicts in this society, I would suggest that the Minister is guilty of, at best, political opportunism and, at worst, profound cynicism.
Rumours of the demise of "zero tolerance" would seem to be greatly exaggerated. Recent reports have confirmed that nicotine addiction is on a par with heroin addiction in its force yet I know of no Department of Health policy for nicotine addicts similar to the one that makes methadone available to heroin addicts. The havoc wreaked by alcohol-abuse in this society is easily comparable to that caused by smoking, yet I've yet to hear a Minister for Health stepping up to the plate to announce a 50p hike in the price of a pint in recognisance of this fact.
If Mr Martin is sincere in his pledge to "nail the popular myth that the Government is prepared to collude with the tobacco industry because of the contribution cigarette taxes make to the economy," I suggest he immediately introduces measures to make nicotine patches, etc., available to medical card holders who happen to be nicotine addicts. He should be under no illusion that the recent budgetary measures haven't caused real hardship amongst nicotine addicts in lower socio-economic groups. As anybody who knows anything about the nature of addiction will confirm, many addicts will go without food before they deprive themselves of their nicotine "fix".
Liz McManus is to be complimented for bringing some compassion and reality into the Dail debate when she stated: "This Government, and it can be said other governments before it, have never faced up to the nature of this addiction". I believe for a Minister for Health to display such gross insensitivity to the nature of addiction borders on the irresponsible. -Yours, etc.,
Padraic McKiernan, St Lawrence's Road, Clontarf.